On Wednesday, January 16, a four-year-old Mexican gray wolf (Canis lupus baileyi) named M1133 took the first careful steps out of his crate into Arizona’s Apache National Forest, near the New Mexico border. It was the first time he had ever been in the wild. Officials with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) and the Arizona Game and Fish Department hope that the captive-bred M1133 will now join the seven-member Bluestem wolf pack, whose alpha male was illegally killed by a hunter in 2012. If he breeds with the pack’s alpha female—who has not yet taken a new mate—it could bring a vital element of genetic diversity to a small group.﻿